Innovation to Increase Access to Legal Services

LegalRnD – The Center for Legal Services Innovation

LegalRnD is dedicated to improving legal-service delivery and access across the legal industry. We accomplish this mission through research and development of efficient, high-quality legal-service delivery tools and systems. We do the research and development that has been lacking in the legal industry.

LegalRnD brings together professionals from a broad range of disciplines. Contributors start with well-established concepts—such as lean thinking—and use them to improve legal-service delivery. We train our students in these concepts and study them with our partners, including: legal aid organizations, solo practitioners, corporate legal departments, law firms, courts, and entire justice systems.

Improved processes for legal-service delivery

Historically, attempting to increase access to legal services has meant pouring resources into existing systems. But that approach has not worked. More recently, the focus has shifted to technology. We also leverage technology, but recognize that poorly defined processes, standards, and metrics lead to ineffective implementation. Understanding existing processes and how they produce (or fail to produce) value for clients creates a pathway to improving legal-service delivery. This way, we can measurably improve access with fewer resources.

LegalRnD believes that innovation through legal research and development will bring the law to everyone. If you share this belief, we would love to work with you.

The Promise of Organizational Excellence

Organizational excellence disciplines have proven extremely effective for improving legal-service delivery. Tools such as process improvement and project management can significantly improve legal-service delivery today. We use lean thinking to implement standards, develop metrics, and collect and analyze data to test solutions. All of this is critical to improving legal-service delivery and laying a foundation for leveraging technology.

Properly implemented, organizational excellence empowers everyone in an organization and transforms its culture. This goes beyond improving efficiency and quality. Organizational excellence can help address legal-industry problems such as work satisfaction, gender equality, and diversity.

Why Michigan State University

LegalRnD is a perfect fit at Michigan State University College of Law. As a prototype land-grant institution, MSU’s mission includes serving the public through finding practical applications for scientific research and technological innovations. Just as MSU was the country’s first higher-ed institution to teach scientific agriculture, LegalRnD aims to lead the legal industry through the use of scientific research and development, organizational excellence, and technology. LegalRnD will relentlessly pursue advancement of the legal profession and public service by providing broader access to legal services.

LegalRnD Curriculum at Michigan State University College of Law

Delivering Legal Services: New Legal Landscape

This course is intended as an introductory level survey of legal service operations. It will provide: (1) an overview of the prevailing legal service delivery processes as of the late 20th century; (2) an introduction to legal service delivery processes that have been introduced since then; and (3) a brief projection of where legal service delivery processes may evolve in the next decade. The goals are: (1) provide a theoretical context students can use to understand existing processes and to learn new processes throughout their careers; (2) build basic skills in collecting data and using metrics, project management, and process excellence; (3) expose students to developing technologies; and (4) examine where legal service operations is heading over the next decade. The course will discuss and include examples relating to small, medium and large law firms, the justice system, and not-for-profit legal service organizations. The course will provide students with a core understanding of how legal services are delivered to clients. It will treat legal service delivery as an evolving subset of service operations. It will pull from elements, themes, concerns and approaches that affect the broader world of service operations. The course will address the nature and theory of service, operations, delivery, and service innovation. It also will consider future opportunities and potential service processes. In addition to providing a framework for understanding current legal service delivery processes, the theoretical discussions should serve as a basis for students to identify areas where processes can be improved. In addition, the course will introduce students to tools and skills used in legal service delivery. Students will be exposed to basic data collection techniques in legal settings, simple metrics useful in measuring legal operations, methods to manage discrete projects and portfolios of matters, staffing opportunities, process mapping, process improvement techniques, client engagement, measuring value exchanges, and simple legal service delivery technologies. Students should leave the course with the basic skills needed to, among other things, establish a project plan for a matter, prepare simple process maps, and track performance and improvement on legal service delivery. Finally, the course will provide a solid theoretical and skill foundation for students who want to pursue more in-depth studies in legal service delivery, legal analytics, design skills, and legal entrepreneurship.

Quantitative Analysis for Lawyers

This is an applied course designed to introduce students to various modes of quantitative thinking. The goals of this course are to: (1) prepare students to be knowledgeable consumers of quantitative information as practicing lawyers and (2) prepare students for technology infused law practice of the 21st Century. Course modules include: (a) research design, (b) statistics in the courtroom, (c) introduction to probability and basic statistics, (d) data distributions, (e) statistical tests, (f) regression analysis, (g) quantitative legal prediction, and (h) a brief introduction to legal automation and the technology infused law practice of the present (and not so distant future).

Information Privacy and Security Law

Examines the regulation of information flow with particular attention to statutory and compliance issues. Topics include the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Stored Communications Act, and the Banking Secrecy Act. The course is designed to prepare students to take the privacy certification examinations offered by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Legal Analytics

This course is designed to train students to efficiently manage, collect, explore, and analyze various forms of legal data. Its purpose is to imbue students with the capability to: (1) understand the process of extracting knowledge from data with specific applications to domains such as legal prediction; (2) distinguish themselves in legal proceedings involving data or analysis; (3) distinguish themselves in firm management matters; (4) understand and communicate with information and software sector clients; and (5) use data to manage outside resources such as LPO or eDiscovery providers. Students will be introduced to sophisticated statistical techniques including machine learning and natural language processing.
Prerequisite(s): Quantitative Analysis for Lawyers or with professor permission alternative prior experience with data/statistics.

Litigation: {Data, Theory, Practice, & Process}

The primary goal of this class is for students to learn how to leverage data, theory, and process to obtain better results in litigation. Students will explore sources of data and the use of decision theory, game theory, and economic analysis to evaluate claims, predict outcomes, and improve litigation strategies. The litigation process will be deconstructed beyond the mechanics of procedural rules and into the specific tasks lawyers must perform. Deconstructing the litigation process allows lawyers to properly staff matters, complete tasks more efficiently, and demonstrate the marginal return on investment for each task. Students will also learn a number of practical skills necessary to be an effective litigator. Among the topics addressed are early case assessment, client counseling, settlement negotiations, drafting persuasive pleadings and motions, managing discovery, persuading the factfinder, managing litigation projects, budgeting, and developing effective value-added litigation strategies.

Entrepreneurial Lawyering

Enrollment is by permission only. This course helps students understand the economic pressures, technological changes, and globalization facing the legal profession in the 21st century, and to assist students in successfully navigating their legal career given these challenges. The course explores the concept of a virtual law practice as well as the use of technology and cloud-computing in building a law practice; free and low-cost resources and tools will be shared that will help the entrepreneurial-minded student identify ways to leverage leading-edge technology to defray start-up costs associated with launching a practice and to control overhead. Ethics, licensing, and malpractice issues will also be discussed. The course will be particularly useful for students who are contemplating solo practice, consulting, or engaging in an entrepreneurial venture, as well as those who are considering non-traditional uses for their law degree. Other topics to be covered include client development and networking, case studies of innovative legal services delivery mechanisms and alternative business structures, and work/life balance including the study of emotional intelligence and mindful lawyering practices. This course assumes students may (or may not) arrive with a range of experience in the use of technology—we will provide training for everything needed to succeed in this course.

This course prepares the law student to address the competitive landscape of the legal services market faced by a lawyer, both individually and as a member of the legal profession. A historic first in law school history, this course fosters actionable skills and knowledge that translate into creative problem solving for business – their own or that of their clients. This class focuses on design thinking and its methodologies that can uniquely and powerfully address the problems/challenges involved in the business of law. An overview of all phases of this methodology will be undertaken, including empathy and creative intelligence, business modeling, and business/service design. Students will also examine many of the methods, tools, and exercises that are key to unlocking business value as achieved through design thinking. This course provides background preparation for operating a legal practice (small or large), a non-lawyer business, aiding clients in achieving business goals, and otherwise becoming a business-enabled lawyer or business leader.

E-Discovery

This course teaches students the law, theory, and practice of discovery of electronically stored documents and information. The course covers both the federal and Michigan state law governing the production of electronic documents, privilege, motions to compel, and protective orders—as well as the applicable professional standards. Students will be provided a theoretical understanding of the dominant computer algorithmic techniques used in e-discovery (search terms and predictive coding) as well as the legal, ethical, and technological problems each presents. Emphasis will be on hands-on work with e-discovery software.

Contact Us

Are you interested in helping us bring innovation to the legal world? We'd love to hear from you.